Another weekend, another hurricane.
Although Danny (maybe just a tropical storm at this point) was now churning off the coast, we finally got the boat in the water for the first time since our sea trial. This was pretty much just a shakedown cruise…getting used to the boat and how it works. No real trouble getting the sails on, although we’ll probably hank on the jib at the dock next time. We found that the backstay tension adjustment had a pretty big impact on weather helm, which was good since it seemed to have a bit of lee helm when we tested it in Baltimore Harbor.
We were a little nervous getting it out of the water (especially since we failed to come in at a reasonable hour and it was almost completely dark), but despite having to endure a lot of advice from an adamant spectator we did what seemed best to us and it worked just fine. We did find that with the tongue extension, we go off the end of the ramp and there is a big dip there. Just something to be aware of. All in all, we had a great time and an excellent first cruise.
